The Misadventures of Baby Beluga and Butterball - A California Update

This year has been the sum total of foul weather followed by
calamity, bad luck, misfortune and surprise.  First, I was
ordered to take the year off from pumpkin growing, but I
wiggled, begged, squirmed and pleaded until I earned the
reluctant approval to raise two plants. That was my first
mistake... perhaps I should have left well enough alone.

I should have seen it coming when it started raining toward the
end of March.... and the rain continued the entire month of
April.  All my spring patch prep ideas oozed down the drain
with the endless muddy water.  

Germination was mind racking too... one plant (Butterball, 831
Zunino) came up in four days and then nothing for the rest of
the week.  Finally, on the eighth day, a huge, milky white
seedling with no color what-so-ever emerged from the 1230
Daletas pot.  I named this albino giant - Baby Beluga.  The
backup plant, a 1016 Daletas never made it to the light of day.

The next day, I spent frantically trying to till and double dig
my patch which was still too wet to work. After a long day of
sweating and heaving in the hot sun, I looked up and the entire
state of California and probably the rest of the planet started
swirling around my head... I lost my balance and fell to the
ground but my front yard kept going south.... headed for Canada
I guess.

I lay there, flat on my back in the pumpkin patch for ten
minutes or so unable to get up with the planet swirling around
me wondering if this was it... My friends would all get a good
laugh - Damn pumpkins killed him, they would say.  

Some motorists drove by, looked at me and kept going.  Just my
neighbors... they've known I've been crazy for years.  Nothing
unusual to see him lying in the patch staring at the sky, with
his tongue lolling out.

Eventually, the world stopped turning so fast that I could
catch up to my house.  I figure it was probably dehydration
that drop kicked my inner ear, threw my equilibrium completely
out of wack and spun me in vortex California.

A few days and a whole lotta Gatorade later, Baby Beluga and
Butterball were nestled in my Yin and Yang patch. Of course, it
immediately turned cold and overcast.  The first anemic leaf
which emerged from Butterball was riddled with bug holes...
looked like swiss cheese.  I dusted the plant with Sevin. The
next day the growing tip had turned yellow and the tiny new
leaves just emerging were yellow and also riddled with holes. 
Took me two days to find the culprit - a small caterpillar.  He
had drilled through the growing bud and really damaged it and
now the Sevin was burning it.... Not a great start...

After a week of cold overcast we had a scorching hot day...
Baby Beluga looked like it had been singed with a blow torch. 
Things were not going well.  Two days later I was checking out
the heat damage and it became clear that Baby Beluga was double
vining... and no back up plant.  Later, when trying to put some
shade cloth over Butterball, I broke the stalk of her only
undamaged leaf...

Why do I do this???

Why does anybody try to grow giant pumpkins???  If you can
figure that out - you have a great start in discovering the
meaning of life.... whatever that's worth, but then don't ask
me....

I came close - real close to just pulling the plants and
telling my wife... You know babe, just for you, I decided not
to do pumpkins this year...  but then, I couldn't do it...
couldn't do it.

Then the sun came out and we had a spell of hot days and warm
nights.  Both plants greened up real nice and started growing. 
Magically Baby Beluga's main vine straightened out after two
sets of double leaves and started to single vine.  The two
extra leaves filled in nicely for the earlier ones that had
burned.

Huh, what's going on here...

Baby Beluga was looking so good this morning, I had to check my
log from last year... and to my great surprise, she is my best
start ever - two foot main vine and 19.5" dia. biggest leaf at
21 days from germination.  This beats GE, my best plant last
year.  At 21 days GE's biggest leaf was 13.5 inches and the
plant hadn't started to vine yet.  

Will wonders ever cease....

I'm feeling better now, and I'm keeping up with lotsa fluids.
Maybe in October, there'll be a big whale of a surprise here in
sunny California... if I live that long...

vince
zone 9, the pumpkin zone

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing archives: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index